Tumor

We got to the hospital early on Tuesday. The doctor was an hour late so we got a lecture from the anasthesiologist. He said he could perform a regional block or put me to sleep. Both will have risks of birth defect or pre-term labor. Biajee looked really nervous.

"I still want the surgery." I said calmly. "Just do the regional block."

The nurse drove Biajee out of the room in case he faints and they started to poke on every nerve on my knee. I was tortured for half an hour before they finally found the right spot and injected the ansthesia.

Dr. Cooney came in shortly afterwards and they wheeled me to the operations room. I suddenly felt that my foot was still hurting so I told him not to cut me yet while I could still feel the pain.

"Why didn't you block his ankle?" Dr. Cooney asked the anasthesiologist.

"Well, a local ankle block would take four needle shots, which would be dreadful to endure so I chose to give her a regional block. Looks like it takes a while for the skin to get numb. Would you give her another shot next to the operation spot?"

At that moment I was furious. The flake didn't tell me I had the choice of local ankle block. For all the pain he created for me in the pre-surgery room, I'd rather have four needle shots.

Dr. Cooney gave me another shot of anasthesia and started to work on me. It didn't take too long before he finished. The nurse asked me whether I'd like to see IT. I said yes. So she showed me the little sucker that'd been bothering me all along. It's milky white in color, about the size of the pinky finger tip, wrapped around by some pink muscle-like tissues. Dr. Cooney ordered it to be sent to the lab for testing.

After Biajee came into the recovery room, Dr. Cooney told us that this wasn't a ganglion cyst. It was a tumor. "Fortunately," He said, "It is benign. That's the most important thing. I still had it sent to the lab to make sure everything is all right. I'll have to pull your stitches out in 10 to 12 days."

"Would you write me a note so that I could take some time off work?" I asked.

"Sure." He grabbed a note from the table. "How many days do you need? No work for 2 years? How about till Monday? You want to work on Friday? All right, just call me if you need more days. Don't take off the bandage in 48 hours. You can shower after 72 hours, but it's better if you can keep it from water for 5 to 7 days."

We were soon discharged. I just saw a TUMOR! I cannot believe it. It's great that I had it taken out now because with all the hormones from the pregnancy, the tumor could well turn into cancer in the end. It was close and I live.